Neuschwanstein and Schwangau

24.3.12 Schwangau, Deutschland

Fairy tale castles aren't just in fairy tales.  You can see that for yourself if you ever have the chance to visit the famous Neuschwanstein Schloss, shown right.  Walt Disney saw this iconic palace of the mad King Ludwig II during a visit to Germany, and modeled the Sleeping Beauty castle around it for his film.  Later, a modified version of the castle became the well-known symbol of Disney and Disney films.  Still, that is only one small fraction of the magnificence that abounded in Schwangau, the small village just inside of the southern German-Austrian border.

A group of five of us (Myself, Clement, Vincent, Rikard, and Erik) traveled together by renting a car from Stuttgart - a Mercedes! (van.. haha).  Still, I made use of my first drive on the Autobahn to take it up to just over 200 kmh which is about 125 mph.  Next time we get a nicer car hopefully and can take it a hair faster and feel the engine really purr [=

While in Schwangau, we toured not just Neuschwanstein but also Hohenschwangau, which was his family's castle and his home as a child before his father's death.  We got to see a number of brightly painted rooms (murals and such) including one room just for receiving gifts! Must be nice to be a prince...

The rest of the guys in front of Hohenschwangau

The Schloss Neuschwanstein was fantastic not only from far away, but also up close and within the courtyard.  We got to tour the throne room (unfinished, since Ludwig II died before it was finished.  He only spent 120 days/nights in the castle before his death.  We also saw some studies, a dining room, a working telephone (In the mid-late 1800's this was very rare), a passage that cut through the rock face, and the concert hall.  We also got to step out onto the large balcony for a panoramic vista on the way. You can see the balcony spot if you look above, dead center of the 1st picture on about the 4th floor.

Finally, we ended our day by trekking 15 minutes up the mountains to Marienbruecke (Marien Bridge) to take the first picture, etc. of the castle.  Along the way I stopped to snap a shot or two of the Alps over Alpsee... breathtaking!

Wilhelma Zoo / Tierpark / Botanical Gardens

23.3.12- Freitag - Bad Canstatt- Stuttgart, Deutschland

We took a class trip in the end of April to Wilhelma Zoo, which is a Botanical-Garden and now Zoo/Animal Park just outside of the Stuttgart Stadtmitte.  Our class met around 9.00am at the gates. We were a group of about 15 students, plus our Lehrerin- Frau Irmgard.

We first went into the Botanical Gardens.  They were amazing - everything ranging from flowers and wild grasses to bushes and even trees.  They covered every major region of the world - the Americas, areas of Europe (Germany, France, Poland, etc), eastern Asia (Japan, China, Mongolia), Australia, and a small collection of African plants too I believe.  It was quite wet and humid inside a large portion of it, and within about 20 minutes we all went back outside to walk through the zoo.

For the rest of the time at the zoo, we split up into groups of 5 or so and explored what we wanted.  I stayed to watch a Sea-lion show (they fed them and did tricks all free to watch, Emily!)  and then visited the monkeys, reptiles, bears and mountain lions, goats, polar bears, etc.  Especially cool were the vultures being fed fresh lunch and the snowy Owl.  Also really neat to see at the end were the cats of prey - including the snow leopard, tiger, cheetahs, and - my favorite - panther! I don't recall if I have ever seen a panther in a zoo before.

It was a great day in the sun, and after the class ended (about 13.00) we went back to the Stadtmitte with everyone and had a picnic with some döner kebap, music, and a beer!

Langes Nacht der Museen

Am Samstag es war ´St Pattys Day´ aber nicht so viele Deutsche zelebrieren für es.  Einige Internationale Studenten waren nach Irish Bars gegangen, aber ich entschiedete mit meinem Mitbewohnern zu bleiben.  Sondern, Wir nahmen an der stadtweiten Veranstaltung `Langes Nacht der Museen`.  16 Euro für alle die Museen in Stuttgart von 19.00 bis 2.00 Sontag.

Mit Max, Matthias, Michael und Leonardo habe ich an ein Shiff gefahrt, das Planetarium besucht, und zwei andere Museen in Stuttgart gesehen.  Das Planetarium gefällt mir am besten, und allein war die Eintritts wert.

Verschwommen Hafen (leid)

Carl Zeiss Planetarium

Landesmuseum

Ich habe noch nichts Mercedes-Benz oder Porsche besucht.  Es war eine beschäftigte Nacht und diese zwei Museen war wohl höchst Populär.  Nächste Woche, oder in April vielleicht ich werde besuche ihnen.

Samstag ist Markttag

Jeder Samstag gibt es eine Markt vor dem Rathaus in der Stadtzentrum.  Ich habe mit Erik und Lindsey schon zweimals gegangen.  Alle die Leute hier sind so freundlich und wann die Sonne ist draußen alles glänzt.  Wir haben spazieren durch die Markt gegangen.  Die Mehrheit, die ist verkauft, ist Obst und Gemüsen.

XL Bild für ein XL-schönes Tag

Es gibt auch eine Markt neben die Marktplatz, aber die ´MarktHalle´ ist drinnen.  Es ist mehr ähnlich wie eine frische Supermarkt.  Ich habe bisher nur käse (Bergkäse) gekauft.

Tschow!

Week 1 (long)

Assc. Photos: Set2

This post will serve as a recap of my whole last week.  It'll be a long one but I will shorten to the best parts.

Friday:
Arrived in Stuttgart, went to an orientation for the intensive course, had dinner downtown at Alte Kanzlei, a Swabische (Swabish) restaurant.  Later went out with the international group for a welcome party to Landespavilion, a cool bar downtown.

This was the first taste of European nightlife I've had.  Everyone was really nice and it was a great time.  The music was a bit old - Rude boy and Run it were played.. but so was a remix of Moves like Jagger.  Interesting how some music gets here quickly.  It was also kind of funny that some of the European gals I was with were singing along to the American music and had a bit of the lyrics confused.  I stayed out and danced until 3:00 am, then caught a night bus (3:30 is the last one) home and was asleep around 5:00am!  Some people even stayed later, and caught the first train home at 5:30am.

Saturday:
Hung out with Anne and Lindsey and Erik for a few hours before she caught the train home.  We had lunch and  strolled around downtown for a bit.  On our own officially!

Sunday:
We had a Stadt Rally or Schnitzeljagd - a scavenger hunt through the city proper to get oriented with a lot of locations, get a bit of history, learn what the grandiose buildings were originally built for and who occupies them nowadays, and most importantly, bond with some other students.  It was a blast!!

Our Group- Myself, Agata (Polen), Cle'ment (Frankreich), Anne (Finnland), and Malin (Schweden)

We didn't win - prizes included Jagermeister, wine, and traditional German food, but it was a helluva Sunday afternoon.

Monday-Tuesday:
Nothing exciting; we had our placement tests for classes to see which level or group we'd be in.  We went out both nights for a beer to one of the (3) on-campus bars as a big group.
Fun fact: this bar has a drinking challenge - a 3 liter beer.  Can't wait to do it! One of our friends already has done it (twice).

Can't. Wait.

Wednesday:
First day of class! We introduced ourselves to our classmates and chatted with our instructor for about an hour, then had a short break to run to the bakery and get a snack.  After that we met up with another group - so about 40 students total - and took a walking tour of the downtown Stuttgart area.  The instructors
(Sebastian from Berlin and I don't remember the woman's name..) told us the best bars and which kind of music they play, where to go to the market, and some of the history of the buildings.

I met Tanja (Ukrainian) on Wednesday and we spent the morning together on the tour chatting in German.. new friends rock :).  I was warned about becoming too close with just Int'l students when I first got here, but I'm also meeting Germans.  Plus, when we speak only in German then I think it's just as good.  The only problem is when we as a group all speak English... detrimental to the learning.

Thursday:
Took an Oral exam to help narrow down class.  Seems strange to do this after the first day of classes is already over, but a lot of people get moved around.  Tanja, myself, and Jamie (Brit, great fun) are getting moved up to a higher level.  Erik is as well, with his class.  So, we'll all be taking class together in the mornings woo!

Weekend:
Will be covered in the next post to keep this from being superduper long!

Unusualities

Assc. Photos: soon to come (reminder to self)


There are a few things already in Germany that I've been noticing and need to share with any American readers.. pictures to be added when I remember to take shots of these funny little items..

1:  Businesses are open at the strangest hours.  Everywhere is closed it seems for lunch (Mittagpause) and rarely even in restaurants can you get a warm meal between 12 and 2.  The local bank we've been trying to go to is open Mo, Tues, and Fri 8:30-1pm, Wed. 8:30-12, and Thursday 1-4pm... its hard getting used to this schedule!

2: Bad day of school/work? no problem! Pop over to the nearest Bierautomaten and buy yourself a beer for about 1.10.  These vending machines also carry soda, although usually only coke.  I've gone with the beer.. it's pretty good for a Euro!

3: In restaurants, it's cheaper to order a beer than a coke (and usually a water)

4: Parkour is really, REALLY popular. I swear... I've seen like 4 groups of people doing it on campus, with others or alone... and taping themselves doing it.  Maybe I should get back into it...

5: You have to pay to use a public toilet. Pee at home.

That's it for now.. I'm behind on my activities so will try to make 1 or 2 more posts by the end of the week with a full set of photos.

----

Weinheim

Assc. Photos:  Flikr Set1

Anne is an amazing host and friend! We boarded the train to Weinheim and about 10 minutes in had a slight hiccup.  She realized after spilling her water in her purse, that she lost her planner with her and Lindsey's ticket in it! Erik and I bought ours separately.. So when the ticketmaster came by to check, she had a really "like camping" conversation with him at high speeds.. naturally I completely lost what they were saying.  I can understand the German for the most part over here but when someone decides to speak full speed or is upset, no f*ckin chance.

We resolved the issue thanks to Erik's iPhone and the internet proof of purchase.  We arrived in Weinheim at about 8pm, ate some dinner with Anne's family (Lena, Helga, Alfred), had some Radler1, and were promptly in bed by 9.

The next day Anne took us through Weinheim and we went to the mall, saw the AltStadt and everything beautiful that a small (25.000) town has to offer.  It was 65 and sunny so Erik and I wore shorts.. I think we were the only ones in town and definitely stuck out.

After two days in Weinheim, we came to Stuttgart with Anne (she continued to help us set up BahnCards and get phones... how awesome) and she hung out with us for two days before returning home. 

The view from Anne's kitchen in Weinheim.. unbelievable how common these beautiful sights are over here.

1Radler - German pre-made mix of Lemonade and Beer... delicious and very popular here.

Arrival (Boring)

Assc. Photos: Flikr, Set1

This post is coming a bit late - apologies - because the first few days in a new country can be somewhat hectic and confusing, I've learned.  My flight and first two days in Germany are covered here.

The flight from Chicago- O'hare was quite nice actually.  Once I said bye to dad in the airport and freaked out a bit about the fact that I was leaving everything comfortable to me, I made it through TSA without any hold-ups, and met Erik and Lindsey at our gate.

Erik is another Aerospace/Astronautics engineer in my program in Madison.  He's studying at Uni Stuttgart with me.  Lindsey is a CALS (agriculture) student studying soil science and is studying in Hohenheim, a smaller suburb and Uni outside of Stuttgart.

We flew over on a Boeing 777 which was a really nice plane.  Being 6'3", I naturally was uncomfortable most of the way with no legroom.. Erik's mom bought him some "Economy Plus" seating with extra legroom.. i became pretty jealous of that by the time we landed.  Still, each seat had a touch-screen TV on the back of it and we could watch movies and TV and play games the whole way over... I was entertained.

side note: Drive (Ryan Gosling) is worth watching if you're bored.  The Descendants (Clooney) is a decent film as well, although mostly due to the younger actors and actresses making up for Clooney's lack of exciting work...

Anyways, we landed in Munich after 8:45 of flight and Lindsey's friend Anne met us at the airport.  She is really fantastic.  We rode the S-bahn (Stadtbahn, city train) to Munich Hauptbahnhof.

We had to wait in Munich for about 3 hours before our long train to Weinheim (where we stayed with Anne for 2 days) arrived, so we had a little time to explore the city and walk around .. Erik and I had just enough time to make it to Karlsplatz before we had to go back and board to Weinheim.

Wilkommen!

Assc. Photos: None

Hello readers - if any exist.  I'm writing this blog mostly as a diary for myself to help remember what I've done during my (surely amazing) time in Germany this semester.

 Starting next week (12.3.12) I am going to try to write entirely in german for my own benefit.  A link to Google Translate is on the right side of this blog for anyone who wants it.  It works pretty accurately and any strange phrases that show up after using it are likely my fault and not Google Translate's.

As you can see in this post, I'm going to list which set(s) of photos on my Flikr account are linked with the current post.  You can also see more photos that I didn't take on my Facebook - ones that Erik and/or Lindsey tag me in.  After the trip is over I will try to collect all photos somewhere. (reminder to self)

Thanks for reading and I hope you can enjoy a bit of Germany through me--

Herzliche Denken,
Brian